4PTG: Second verse, same as the first. A little bit louder and a little bit worse.
Ochala watched, an annoyed expression on her face, as the last guard slipped off her blade and onto the ground. What was the use of sending guards if they had no idea how the planet worked in the first place? Of course the guards had tried to use their guns. Bloody Earth-fodder, never listened to a word you said til you had a blade at their throat, and after that they didn't trust you.
Ochala undid the sash from around her waist and used it to wipe off her sword. She glanced at her watch. Barely two minutes had passed since the train had stopped and the guards had disembarked. The female grinned. Even their fighting showed that they were from Earth: Ochala, born here, was used to Msana's increased gravity and thinner air. The Earth-fodder had to work in a place where they moved more slowly and couldn't breathe. Of course they hadn't been able to fight.
Dying's about all that they could have done.
The doors along the train's right side still stood open, but there was no movement, and Ochala nodded to herself. Who in their right mind would do anything to leave, after seeing what she'd just done? No time to admire herself now, though. At the moment she had another task.
She turned on her heel and strode uptrack, retying her sash and ignoring the blood.
Ochala arrived at the engine and used her sword to knock on the door, two strides above her. She had to wait, but within a minute, the engine door hissed ajar, and a dark, antlered head popped out. "Aye? What's it?"
Ochala grinned despite herself. Not Msana, not even Earth-fodder. Someone had recruited this driver from Karai, a planet in the exact opposite direction from hers. Alright, Earth-fodder were using aliens to do their dirty work. Ochala shouldn't've expected anything else.
"Nothing," she responded to the Karaii's question. "Just that I killed the guards, and was going to ask if there was anyone who wanted to join our cause. Yourself included."
The Karaii's inner two eyes widened, a gesture its people had picked up from the fodder, Ochala supposed. Not being as learned as that, she couldn't tell whether it was surprise, anger, or something else. "Have hundred persons here all go south," he responded. Ochala had decided to herself that it was a he. "Would join for why?"
"Because you're unsatisfied with the lot that's been forced upon you, and wish to join in the resistance against the people who made you work for them." Ochala paused. "You probably don't get paid enough." She turned half-around, as though it were none of her concern. "At any rate, could you just wait here until I've recruited whoever wants to come with me? I can make it worth your time."
"Worth time," repeated the Karaii. His mouth turned down. "Am not paid." His head disappeared from the door and reappeared at a window. "Tell them now."
Ochala shook the smile from her face, and turned back toward the first car. Two steps brought her up the five short stairs, and she ducked through the door, raising her head once she got inside. It was still too small for her. Just because the fodder were short, they assumed everyone else must be the same.
The first cabin was unoccupied, but the second held ten Msani: a family, it was obvious, or part of one. Ochala addressed herself to the matriarch. "Are you leaving of free will or force?"
"Force." The lady had to be first-generation - someone her age couldn't be anything else - but that didn't stop her mouth from going thin and hard. "Lived here since fourth o' years. Came here when I was ten, married at thirteen, lived in Mnado til now an' they came an' didn't even let us bring what we packed. Force, child."
"I'm surprised you had time to pack," Ochala answered. "And if you didn't have to leave?"
"Then what the hells'm I doing on this train?"
"I'm not sure." Ochala stepped back so that the door was clear. "But now is your chance to get off. I'm gathering people who want to stay. We have a safe place for you to go to, we're starting a city-"
"Where're the guards?" The lady's grand-daughter (or great-granddaughter, if she really had married at thirteen) piped up. "The guards won't let us get off."
"I don't think they can do much about that now." Ochala realized belatedly that her answer might frighten the people. She said it anyway. "I killed them."
With humans she could tell what widened eyes meant. She finished speaking hastily. "Go out the back of the car, that way you won't see the mess. Go around the side of the station and through the turnstiles. My friend is waiting for you there." She grabbed either doorframe and swung herself out of the cabin before the others had a chance to respond.
Ochala repeated her performance in cabin after cabin, working her way down the car. The next three cabins, with eight people each, all looked to be related to the matriarch Ochala had encountered earlier. She gave the same spiel to each of them, and to the people in the next four.
By the time she had finished with the car, a small group had gathered by the turnstile, and more were joining them. Ochala saw that one of her friends had appeared and was working his way up starting from the back of the train; Ochala herself left the third and fourth cars to him.